Steven Jay Rubin's Saturday Night at the Movies, Los Angeles, CA (2026)

10/17/2026

Back in the 1950s, you didn’t want to anger any character played by Kirk Douglas. Talk about an actor who used every fiber in his body to emote! This week, I watched 1959’s “Last Train from Gun Hill,” a film I somehow missed back in the day. Talk about the perfect set up for Kirk’s talent: in the first five minutes, his Native-American wife is r***d and murdered by two drunk white men. Kirk’s character, Marshal Matt Morgan, vows to bring the two killers to justice, and, believe me, nothing is going to stop him.
This film has a lot of initial selling points. First, it’s directed by John Sturges, fresh off “Gunfight at the OK Corral,” and about to start prepping “The Magnificent Seven.” Sturges worked in many genres, and he directed my favorite all time movie, “The Great Escape,” but westerns were certainly his specialty.
Secondly, the casting. Sturges pits Morgan against his old friend and comrade, cattle baron Craig Belden (a solid Anthony Quinn) who turns out to be the father of Rick Belden (Earl Holliman), one of the murderers. What a setup! Holliman had previously played a deputy sheriff for Sturges in “Gunfight at the OK Corral”. Holliman’s fellow killer, Lee Smithers, is portrayed by actor Brian Hutton, who later directed two of the great late 60s/early 70s action films, “Where Eagles Dare” and “Kelly’s Heroes.” Rounding out the cast were a marvelous Carolyn Jones as Quinn’s girlfriend, Linda; and Brad Dexter as one of his henchmen, who Sturges would soon recruit as Harry Luck, one of “The Magnificent Seven.”
No one directs action like Sturges, and this film is no exception. He also re-teams here with composer Dimitri Tiomkin, so the movie has the similar intense vibe of “Gunfight at the OK Corral,” and Douglas is really terrific as he faces an entire town of enemies in his attempt to take Rick Belden on the “Last Train from Gun Hill.” Definitely worth checking out if you haven’t seen it, or a revisit.

10/11/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – There was a time when the only place you heard the word “digital” was in a man’s urologist’s office. Now, everything is digital! Particularly when it comes to epic war pictures – digital planes, digital ships, digital tanks, even huge digital portrayals of massed infantry. Back in the mid-1970s, producer Joseph Levine had the ultimate cinematic challenge – how to adapt Cornelius Ryan’s book “A Bridge Too Far” into a film.
This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, military technical advisor, film historian and veteran Rory Aywlard and I dive into a look at one of the most technically challenging war pictures of all time. Filmed, fifteen years after “The Longest Day,” also based on a fact-based Ryan’s book, Levine and his capable director Richard Attenborough, working from a terrific William Goldman adaptation, had their hands full recreating war-ravaged Holland in 1944. Tune in and we explore those challenges, the fabulous cast and the legacy of one terrific war picture, filmed successfully without a digital byte in sight.
You can watch this episode right now on our You Tube Channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/mpemY0iTEWc
Or, starting tomorrow, you can listen on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also starting tomorrow, you can watch it on our fast channel outlet, True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday

10/10/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – I have to say that 1973’s “The Wicker Man” was one of the most atmospheric films of the 1970s – a totally unsettling fish-out-of-water story, in which the fish is Edward Woodward’s conservative police officer, Sergeant Neil Howey.
Written beautifully by Anthony Shaffer who loosely adapted David Pinner’s novel “Ritual,” and featuring the inspired direction of Robin Hardy, this was a very troubled production, to say the least, initially green-lit by British Lion Film Corporation (nearing bankruptcy).
This fascinating journey film begins with a letter that is sent directly to Howey from an anonymous source on Summerisle, a tiny fictional island off the coast of Great Britain. In the letter, Howie is told that a pre-teen is missing, and that the islanders are worried. So, the very dutiful police sergeant flies over to Summerisle, and begins his investigation. He soon finds himself amongst seemingly modern human beings who are practicing pagan rituals to restore their devastated apple harvest. And they are overtly s*xual, which is increasingly unsettling to the puritanic Howey.
Amongst the people he encounters is the innkeeper’s randy daughter, Willow (a terrific Britt Ekland) and the charismatic Lord of the Isle, portrayed by Christopher Lee, who considered this his finest performance. Gradually, we begin to realize that Howey’s efforts are being blocked by the entire island, while he’s confronted by a pagan world he can’t comprehend.
Many good movies are not appreciated by the companies that produce them – in this extreme case, the executive who inherited “The Wicker Man” hated the film. So it was unceremoniously cut to pieces, then dumped into the marketplace as the second feature behind “Don’t Look Now.” Not a great fate for a very cool film. Worth checking out. I did not see the Nicholas Cage remake.
Just watching Britt Ekland’s wall-banging, n**e erotic dance in the room next to Howey’s is worth the price of admission. Whew!!!

10/04/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – One quality I really admire in authors and film historians is their tenacity to find the answers to age-old questions. In Mark Edlitz’s case, he was determined to discover what really happened to Orson Welles’ third movie, “ the thriller “Journey Into Fear” (1943). This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, our guest is Edlitz who discusses the motivation behind his new book: “Maverick in the Machine: Orson Welles and the Battle Over Journey Into Fear.” Frankly, I didn’t know a thing behind this noirish film that takes place mostly on a boat off the coast of Turkey during World War II. Joseph Cotton, who is credited with the script, is a military arms expert, who finds himself targeted for assassination by N**i agents. The cast includes Dolores Del Rio and Welles’ stalwarts Everett Sloane and Agnes Moorehead. Welles’ himself acts as a Turkish police chief, but doesn’t direct, surrendering those chores to Norman Foster (The “Mister Moto” film series)
You can watch this episode right now on our You Tube channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/nqJHCyfLZ80
Or, starting tomorrow night, you can listen to the audio on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also starting tomorrow, you can find the video on True TV Plus, using this link:
https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=%20Saturday%20Night%20at%20the%20Movies
Also, apologies for last week’s episode where director Peter Hunt talks about his masterwork “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service.” There was a glitch and it wasn’t posted. It’s up now.

10/03/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – I’ve always appreciated Stewart Grainger, a very underrated action hero. Years ago, I remember enjoying his performance as safari leader Allan Quartermain in 1950’s “King Solomon’s Mines,” so when I saw it recently pop up as a viewable title on TCM Watch, I decided to rewatch. A really fun choice.
At a time when the studios were starting to take their films to actual locations, MGM pulled out all the stops and brought a huge crew to Africa to make the film, and the wildlife footage they captured alone was worth the price of admission.
Written by Helen Deutsch, who adapted H. Rider Haggard’s celebrated novel, and co-directed by Compton Bennett and Andrew Marton (a master of action sequences, he later coordinated the action in “The Longest Day” and “The Blue Max), the story involves Elizabeth Curtis (gorgeous Deborah Kerr) hiring Quartermain to help her find her missing husband in an unexplored region. Curtis had disappeared in search of the fabled King Solomon diamond mine.
It’s not surprising that MGM hired a female screenwriter because the Elizabeth Curtis character doesn’t exist in the original novel. By adding Elizabeth, Helen Deutsch crafted the film not only as an African adventure, but a romantic drama. Grainger and Kerr were apparently involved in a romantic relationship at the time – making their on-screen chemistry very real.
But as much fun as I was having watch Grainger and Kerr make goo goo eyes at each other, the core of the movie’s attraction is its depiction of Africa, its natives and, of course, the wildlife. A stampede sequence in the wake of a grassland fire, is truly jaw dropping, and every crocodile that jumps in the river always seems to be twelve feet long.
Kudos to Richard Carlson (“Creature from the Black Lagoon”) who lends able support as Elizabeth’s brother, John, and Siriaque, who plays the mysterious Umbopa, a seven-foot giant. Well worth a re-visit.

09/27/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – A truly unsung hero of the first six James Bond movies was editor Peter Hunt, who won his directing spurs on the marvelous “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” (1969). In writing my first Bond history book, Hunt was a valuable interview whose contribution to the style of the series is really off the charts. This week, we hear that affable voice again describing the production of his masterwork. We learn about the issues with snow, the casting, the discovery of the Piz Gloria mountaintop restaurant and the daily challenges Hunt faced in putting together arguably the best of Ian Fleming’s 007 novels.
You can watch that interview right now (audio only) on our You Tube channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/sD-f9o_OWGE
Or you can catch it on your favorite podcast platform starting tomorrow. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, you can listen on our Fast Channel outlet, True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday

09/26/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – Lucille Ball, William Bendix: two comedy icons from the 1950s. But Lucy and William could also play dramatic roles, and those abilities are on excellent display in the cool film noir entry from 1946 – “The Dark Corner.” I’ve been catching up on my noir lately by tuning in LA’s Movies channel (KCOP), which I believe is syndicated nationwide, and “The Dark Corner” was a delightful recent discovery.
Virtually unknown today, former Warner Bros. contract player Mark Stevens takes a rare lead as New York City private detective Bradford Galt, whose witty and loyal secretary, Kathleen Stewart, is played by Ms. Ball. Galt is a traumatized man who fled the West Coast when he was convicted of manslaughter and received a prison sentence for killing someone in a drunk-driving incident. That incident involved his former partner, Anthony Jardine (Kurt Krueger, who played the captured N**i pilot in “Sahara”), who now lives in the Big Apple and works with art gallery owner and dealer Hardy Cathcart (Clifton Webb, in fine form as a stuffy art snob).
Bendix is beefy tough guy Stauffer (aka Fred Foss) who is stalking Galt, although we’re not sure who he’s working for. Is it Jardine, trying to keep his former partner quiet about his chicanery in San Francisco? Is it Cathcart who sees Galt as a potential dupe in a murder plot? This sounds complicated, but in Jay Dratler and Bernard C. Schoenfeld’s compelling script (based on a story by Leo Rosen), aided immeasurably by director Henry Hathaway, the movie works beautifully.
This was hardly Lucy’s dramatic debut – she’d been making movies in Hollywood since 1933, and many were dramas. Here she also looks terrific and, excuse me, s*xy. Bendix, meanwhile, is a menacing force, miles away from his comic personas in the TV series “Life of Riley” or his goofy knight in “A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur’s Court.” And kudos to Stevens who projects a cool vulnerability as a credible leading man.

09/19/2026

SATURDAY NIGHT AT THE MOVIES – Another confession. I barely know the filmography of Maggie Smith. Yes, I saw her all those years as the exceedingly sympathetic Professor Minerva McGonagall in the Harry Potter movies, and I loved her as Rod Taylor’s resourceful assistant in “The V.I.P.’s,” but everything else is a blank slate.
So, to correct that deficiency, I sat down and watched her Oscar-winning 1969 performance in “The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie.” What a revelation that was! Set in 1930’s Edinburgh, Scotland, written beautifully by Jay Presson Allen, based on his play, and adapted by Muriel Spark, the story introduces us to veteran girl’s school teacher Jean Brodie who has a special relationship with her students.
Jean doesn’t teach by the book, she teaches by her own instincts, and most of her young students adore her – whether it’s early s*x education, politics or simply understanding the beauty of art, music, and poetry. But her style puts her into constant conflict with administrators – and her undoing is her complete devotion to fascist dictators Mussolini and Franco.
This is a tour-de-force performance, and Ms. Smith pours herself into the role. Teaching is truly her life, and she brings such passion to her lectures – whether in the classroom or local field trips.
Smith is ably supported by her castmates, including a terrific Pamela Franklin, who plays her student, Sandy, a wise young woman who begins to see through Jean’s agenda. I’ve always enjoyed former child actor Franklin’s work – from early Disney to Richard Matheson’s “The Legend of Hell House” and she’s a terrific counterpoint to Smith in this film. Also lending terrific support is actor Robert Stephens who plays art teacher Teddy Lloyd who lusts after Jean (the following year, he would take on the role of Sherlock Holmes in Billy Wilder’s marvelous “The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes”) – and Gordon Jackson (a veteran of “The Great Escape”) as teacher Gordon Lowther, another of Jean’s suitors.
But this movie is all Maggie – and she well-deserved her Best Actress prize. A fun, fascinating film from director Ronald Neame (“The Poseidon Adventure”).
Of course, the film is probably best known for “Jean,” its Oscar-nominated song from Rod McKuen.

09/06/2026

BREAKING PODCAST NEWS – “They just don’t make movies like this anymore.” How many times have we said that recently? Certainly, when it comes to epic all-star comedies, it’s so true. And there was never a more epic, all-star comedy than Stanley Kramer’s 1963 icon “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World,” which was written cleverly by William and Tania Rose.
This week on Saturday Night at the Movies, our guest is prolific show business author Jim Curtis whose latest book is the wonderful behind-the-scenes tome “Comedy is a Grim Business: The Making of “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.” This is the first simulcast with my other podcast, Tales from Hollywoodland, which I host with fellow producers Julian Schlossberg and Arthur E. Friedman, who will be joining me on this interview.
You can watch this episode right now on our You Tube Channel, using this link: https://youtu.be/0oSOWvJgkME
Or, starting tomorrow, you can get the audio on your favorite podcast platform. Here’s a link to Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/7oG8rdYWHp5bEO3pJiVRe7
Or, also starting tomorrow, you can watch it on our fast channel outlet, True TV Plus, using this link: https://play.truetvplus.com/search?query=Saturday
Happy Labor Day weekend everyone! Onward and upward.

Steven Jay Rubin's Saturday Night at the Movies

10/17/2026

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